In 1992 Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes starred in a basketball movie called White Men Can’t Jump, little was expected of the film, yet it went onto become a big success. A large part of that success was the chemistry between the films two leads. Three years later Snipes and Harrelson re-teamed for John Ruben’s action comedy Money Train, the story of two foster brothers who work as transit cops. Doesn’t sound very Christmas-y does it, well its not, but it is set at Christmas.

Foster brothers John (Wesley Snipes) and Charlie (Woody Harrelson) are transit cops at the busy holiday season, after trying to apprehend a mugger the pair become embroiled in a disagreement with transit captain Donald Patterson (Robert Blake), after he nearly has them hit by the money train, a single steel rail car designed to deliver the money from every station to the central command centre, Patterson insists that “nothing stops the money train”. It is around this festive time of year that John finds out Charlie is in debt pretty deep with a local night club owner, Mr Brown. John explains to Mr Brown that he will receive his money within 7 days, and that the debt is now as much his as it is Charlie’s.

To add to John and Charlie’s woe’s there is a serial killer nicknamed the Torch (Chris Cooper), who is going around robbing ticket booth’s and burning the attendants working in them alive. Along with the help of Grace Santiago (Jennifer Lopez), a new recruit to their unit, the pair must work out how to pay back Mr Brown, capture Torch, and also fight for the affections of Grace, whom has caught the eye of both brothers. Charlie has a plan to sort out paying back Mr Brown, and also set the pair up for life in the process, robbing the money train.

This film is a thoroughly enjoyable action comedy, and ideal watching at Christmas time, when you just want to switch off your brain for a couple of hours and indulge in some OTT action fayre. Snipes and Harrelson have a great rapport with each other, and manage to bounce dialogue off one another with a true sense that these two are close friends and have know each other for years. Its also nice to revisit Jennifer Lopez as an actress before she embarked on her dull music career. Its easy to forget she actually used to make some interesting choices in her movies before she became “Jenny from the block“.